The Status Quo
by Titus Mori
Summary: The wonderful thing about Elmore is that nothing carries over. The adventures are self contained within one day, once that day ends, the world returns to normal. Something has happened though. Things are changing. Gumball's now faced with a decision which will have lasting consequences on himself and the day to day life he lives. Cling to the Status Quo or embrace uncertainty?
1. Chapter 1

Gumball opened his eyes, squinting at the rays of sunlight coming in from the open blinds.

He yawned.

Another day, another adventure in the world of Gumball.

The wonders of living in Elmore was that you never knew what was going to happen next. It had been twelve years now since Gumball had been brought into the Watterson household by way of his mother, Nicole, and his father Richard, and every day something new awaited him. He didn't think about it much due to being a much simpler person then his intellectual sister Anais, but life was entertaining. It was also relaxing. As crazy as things could be sometimes and things could get bad, for sure, things always managed to work themselves out in the end. It didn't matter what had happened, when the sun rose again it was a new day, free of the consequences of yesterday.

"Gumball, hurry and eat breakfast, I have a meeting I need to be to so I can't make sure you go to the bus on time. Don't miss it." his mom shouted from the bottom of the staircase."

"alright mom." he answered.

Moving to the closet, he grabbed his favorite sweater and pulled it over his head and taking a quick look at himself from the mirror in the bathroom. Nothing embarrassing or dweebish as far as he could tell. Seeing that he was looking presentable he headed down the stairs.

Arriving at the landing, he walked towards the kitchen, his brother Darwin and sister Anais already seated at the table, eating what looked to be cereal.

"Morning Gumball." Darwin said, trying desperately to hide a smile.

"Uh..morning." Gumball said with a raised eyebrow.

Gumball poured his cereal, ate it quickly, grabbed his bag, and made his way to the bus stop with Darwin in tow.

A large smile spread across his face as he walked behind Gumball.

"Dude, what's your deal?"

"Oh nothing. Just the fact that-"

Darwin was cut off though by a shout from the bus stop,

"Look everyone, it's Gumball!" someone in the crowd of kids shouted.

Gumball stopped in his tracks.

Everyone was staring at him in the same manner as Darwin.

Something weird was going on.

"For real, I heard they're an item now." the gossiping cloud girl known as Masami stated to the group of kids who listened with attentiveness.

"Gumball? Really?" Tobias said half in dismay and curiosity.

"What's everyone being so weird about?" Gumball said.

Just then, the bus pulled up and all the kids filed into it, conversing all the while.

Gumball moved past the rows of seats, looking for a suitable for Darwin and him to sit.

"Hmm, looks like most of the seats are taken, Darwin."

and that's when it happened.

"Gumball, you can sit next to me?" a voice called out.

He knew that voice.

He turned to see a yellow figure with antlers staring at him, almost as if it was made up of some kind of orange jello. Hmm, it wasn't someone he knew after all, but the voice was so familiar.

"Uhhhh, no thanks, Darwin and I sit together, new girl."

Suddenly, the bus got silent.

All the people watching with excitement, curiosity, etc. didn't make a sound, they were dumbfounded by the situation.

Darwin's eyes widened and he tried to get Gumball's attention. Tried being the key word for Gumball was unable to see what Darwin was doing due to the rapid progression of his conversation with the jello creature.

"New girl?" The voice said somewhat sadly.

"uh yeah, trust me, I've been going to this school for a while now. I can tell when I see a new face. I have expert level memory." Gumball said with emphasis on expert.

"Gumball, how could you forget yesterday?"

"Yesterday? I'm sorry new girl but I would know if I did something yesterday. Like I said, expert level memory."

Darwin pulled at his face in shock, watching the situation get worse and worse around him.

"Gumball. It's me Penny."

"Penny?"

"Your Girlfriend, remember?" she said in a concerned tone.

Girlfriend?

The words sunk in and Gumball's eyes widened.

Images flashed through his mind rapidly.

School play.

Headbutt.

Cracked shell.

The true Penny.

It all made sense.

The orange jello like creature talking to him and offering a seat next to her wasn't some new girl. It was Penny Fitzgerald, the object of his love.

Wait, did she say girlfriend?

Gumball let out a high pitched squeal and went stiff as a board.

The last thing he remembered before blacking out was a concerned Penny reaching out towards him as the bus erupted in laughter.


	2. Chapter 2

"Dude, how was I supposed to know that was Penny." An embarrassed Gumball groaned as he trudged along the hallways with Darwin to their next class.

"Not to make you feel worse or anything but you think that you would recognize the voice of the girl you've been chasing after for years."

"Not helping." Gumball said with a side glance towards Darwin.

"I mean, I didn't expect this ya know? I thought that what happened yesterday didn't matter."

"Rather insensitive." said the high pitched voice of Anais, who stood by her locker grabbing her books and other materials needed for her classes.

"Oh, that's not what I mean. I mean-"

He groaned.

"I don't know what I mean."

He stared down at the tiled floor. Trying to understand what had changed in a day.

It was a little overwhelming.

"Why not just talk it over with Penny?" Darwin said with a shrug.

"I can't do that, I'll look like a fool. She probably thinks I am one after what happened on the bus."

"Oh, good grief." Anais sighed.

"Look Gumball, there's a simple solution to the dilemma at hand. Darwin's right. You just need to talk to her about what happened yesterday and how it's affecting you."

"And I told you guys, there's no way i'm going up to Penny and talking to her."

"Actually" Darwin started, "No need for you to have to go up to Penny and start the conversation."

"What, why?"

"Later dude." Darwin yelled as he ran past Gumball, grabbing Anais's small paw and dragging her along with him, away from Gumball.

"What was that all about?" Gumball thought to himself.

"Um, Gumball."

Oh man.

The figure from the bus, Penny Fitzgerald, stood a few steps away from him. Looking dismayed. He didn't have the guts to face her after earlier and looked towards the floor while whistling a tune. Trying to make the situation less awkward and failing miserably.

"Gumball, I wanted to talk with you about the bus. I wanted to see if you were okay since Tobias and the others did laugh at you. You looked really embarrassed."

"oh that? It didn't embarrass me. Not even a little bit." Gumball said, his voice going high pitched as the words left his mouth.

"Really? But your face was as red as a tomato."

"Trick of the light?" He said unconvincingly.

Penny smiled, "Listen Gumball. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable around me. I mean, we are boyfriend and girlfriend, so you can tell me what's bothering you."

Gumball looked into the sincere and kind face of Penny. His crush. The girl who had defended him in the past, talked with him, shared special moments with, etc. and here she was saying they were dating. It was almost too good to be true. However, though he couldn't quite place it he felt that there was something about all this that felt wrong. He had kissed her, that was true, but he figured that it would mean nothing in the end. It was a spur of the moment thing and that everything would go back to normal the next day. That's how it had always worked. Today though proved differently. He opened his mouth,

"Penny. I….I think that-"

He looked back into her face. She smiled at him, awaiting his response.

He fumbled with his words. Trying to find the right way to phrase it. He couldn't bear to make her cry. Then again, how are you supposed to tell someone that your relationship feels wrong somehow without them bursting into tears?

"I-I-I think that..."

"Yes, Gumball?"

He accepted defeat from within himself.

"I just was wondering if you wanted to go on a date this Saturday." He spoke rapidly with a nervous laugh after the last word.

Penny looked at him quizzically, "Gumball, are you just saying this to dodge my question and ignore your feelings?"

Dang it, she was good.

"Um...no?" Gumball said with another nervous laugh.

"Hmm, well, in that case, I'd be delighted to go with you Gumball." She bent down and kissed him on the cheek, causing his knees to wobble and his heart to beat faster. He fell over backwards onto the hard tile floor with a thud.

"See you Saturday Gumball." She called back with a slight chuckle at the sight of him on the floor.

He repeated her name over and over in his head, with a big goofy smile plastered on his face as he stared at the ceiling.

Life was good.

Wait a minute.

Snap out of it Gumball, he thought to himself, delivering a slap to his face to bring him back to reality.

Not only did you fail to admit your feelings to Penny but you've now just agreed to go on a date with her.

Smooth moves.

Of course this was the relationship with Penny he had always wished for and yet...he didn't like the idea of it. He still couldn't decide what that was but it left him feeling anxious and a little sad.

Whatever.

Just make it through today and think about it when you get home dude, that's all you can do, Gumball thought.

Just make it through today.

He headed off down the hall towards the location of his first class of that morning, all the while recalling Penny's smiling face.

The shrill ringing of the school bell echoed in the classroom.

Gumball exhaled a breath of relief. Finally. He was now able to return home and escape the stares and whispers of Elmore Junior High. It was worse then he had anticipated. He even caught Ms. Simian and Principal Brown whispering about it. It seemed like everyone had heard about the events of the bus and the earlier confrontation in the hallway.

It was hard to imagine how the rest of his week would go from here but given the state of things currently, it was rather embarrassing to be here. All the people gawking at him in the hall and the fleeting whispers.

It was getting tiresome.

"Darwin, I just don't know what to do about this Penny thing."Gumball said with a defeated sigh as he walked down the sidewalk leading to his house.

"Cheer up dude, tomorrow is a new day and I'm sure you'll decide by then."

Gumball bowed his head.

Gumball kicked at the rocks along the sidewalk, watching them hit other smaller rocks and scatter about. That's how he felt at the moment. Like, a rock being kicked around by other rocks and scattering with no sense of direction and no ideas as to where he should go next.

Things had been progressing lately actually.

He hadn't noticed it at first but there had been moments here and there that showed time was flying by him. A key moment being their voices, the time they thought they were "broken" but were actually just changing pitch due to puberty. The only reason they had survived was because they were still part of the 1% of people that never grow up. Were being the key word though. How long until that changed? What if the deep voices returned only this time they never left?

What was happening?

Gumball looked into the sky, admiring the clouds briefly. He liked looking up at them and seeing what shapes they made, but he was frustrated to find that they all looked like Penny. Whether it Penny in her shell form, cheerleader outfit, or just her smiling face, that's all he saw. Okay, enough looking at the clouds, he thought. Instead he walked straight ahead, trying to forget about Penny for now. As they moved closer to the street, a food truck rushed by them, Gumball looked at the label on it and found it said "Elmore Jello" with a picture of an orange gelatinous snack.

Seriously?

He looked to his left and saw a group of young cheerleaders practicing in a field.

Okay, this was getting strange.

He started increasing his pace, going from a walk to a jog, causing Darwin to do the same.

"What's the matter Gumball."

"Dude, I think the universe is trying to tell me I can't break up with Penny."

"What are you talking about?" Darwin said with a scrunched face.

"I gotta get home now man, I can't let the universe decide for me!"

He walked past a mom and child, as he did, he heard the young child exclaim,

"Look mommy, look what I found!"

"That's nice dear, a lucky Penny."

Penny?

Gumball's eye twitched and he was now sprinting as fast as he could.

"Dude, Slow down!" Darwin yelled behind him.

"I can't dude, she's everywhere!" Gumball exclaimed.

He kept running with two fingers in both ears now, blocking out the sound.

Gumball kept running until at last he made it home.

Gumball skipped dinner that night. Asking his mom if he could eat in his room. She had questioned him at first but when she realized he was down in the dumps she agreed to his request.

Gumball stared at the ceiling from his bed reflecting on everything that happened. It was a series of crazy and hard to comprehend events. Penny was actually his girlfriend. Something Gumball wasn't used to. He shook the thoughts from his mind.

He needed to confront Penny tomorrow with the truth this time. She deserved to hear it and he needed to get it off his chest.

A worry for tomorrow though, for now it was time to enjoy the rest of the night.


End file.
